When the MacBook Pro came out with the top-row touch bar, a lot of people were confused and didn't like it. But for me, after a few weeks of using it… I'm confused and don't like it. The per-app buttons almost never expose anything that didn't already have a keyboard shortcut, and restricting the appearance to icons doesn't let you tell what they do.

To turn up the volume just now required three taps: one to wake it up (why would a keyboard have to be activated!?), one to open up the "normal" function menu (why is it it collapsed when the app doesn't have any of its own buttons!?), and one to press the volume key. It would have been one press on a real keyboard.